With Different Eyes
by Lorinhazuzu
Summary: When Hermione Granger seems to be drowning in her own insecurities and self-doubt, who will be the one make her see herself with different eyes?


Hey, I just wanted to warn you that this story does not follow what happens in the end of GOF, of course since Cedric is still alive. But this is one of my favourite pairings and I wanted to try it out. Another thing, this is extremely fluffy. There, don't tell me I didn't warn you. =D

Everything belongs to the amazing J. unfortunately. Nothing but the plot of this story is mine, so don't sue me.

With Different Eyes

Hermione Granger was not one to cry, she was Hermione Granger after all. A member of the Golden Trio, Harry Potter's best friend and the smartest witch of her age. After everything she had gone through with Harry and Ron, what reasons would she have to cry?

Well the fact was that she was indeed crying, hidden away from prying eyes under the staircases in a deserted corridor.

The reason why? Because she was a member of the Golden Trio, the smartest witch of her age and of course Harry Potter's best friend, and somehow she couldn't seem to break out of that image, because nobody seemed to be willing to really get to know her. No, they all saw a swotty, ugly bookworm. They all wanted something from her: help with this or that, information on Harry, someone to check their homework…

She had just overheard a Hufflepuff girl two years above her, going on about her to her group of friends. And she, poor Hermione that always thought that Hufflepuffs were supposed to be nice. Well the things they were saying about her, sure as hell weren't nice, and if she had stopped a minute to think about it she would have realized that those words were pure jealousy and bitterness speaking. However, Hermione was too stung by their spiteful words to stop and try to think rationally. She was also too busy crying to hear the sounds of steps coming her way.

Cedric Diggory was trying his best to be the gentleman his mother had brought him up to be, but even someone as charming and easygoing as him, was having trouble doing that. Ever since the end of last year when he had come back from that retched graveyard with Harry Potter after the last task on the Triwizard tournament, barely managing to get out of there alive, he, together with Harry of course, had been the talk of the school and he had found that overnight, his popularity between the Hogwarts students had gone from normal and healthy to something that was bizarre and quite frankly, he thought to himself, very disturbing.

He sprinted down the corridor and away from the Hall and the students' watchful eyes. He was halfway up the moving staircase when it suddenly changed towards a completely different direction than the one he had meant to go. He ended up in an empty corridor where he knew not many people ventured into since there were no classrooms being used for lessons around.

He walked on, feeling quite content to walk around, where it was so quiet. He was nearing the end of the corridor where there was a spiral staircase right in from of really large glass windows that nearly went up all the way to ceiling and showed the sunset, the faint sunlight coming in, the soft rays lighting up the darkening corridor.

Suddenly he heard a small noise, breaking the enjoyable silence. A noise that sounded a lot like… Was that someone crying? He stopped short, straining his ears trying to hear the small sound again. He didn't have to wait long, the sound of sighing and sniffling reaching his ears quite easily, which startled him a little as he realized that the person – a girl – crying was quite nearby. He looked around the corridor again, and with small, quiet steps he approached the round, twisted staircase, and behind it he found what seemed to be the source of the noise. A girl, not much younger than him, he guessed, was huddled on the ground, her knees brought up to her chest and she had her head leaning on her knees, the mass of curly hair hiding her face from view.

Wait. Curly hair? He thought. There was only one girl in Hogwarts with hair like that, and after he had a chance to actually meet her after everything that had happened with him and Harry, he would have recognized her anywhere, especially since he had developed a habit of watching her around school.

"Hermione? Are you alright?" He wondered what could have made the smart, strong and level-headed girl to break down so completely. The crying stopped abruptly, her small form freezing in surprise and embarrassment at being found in such a state.

Slowly she looked up at him from her corner on the floor.

"Ce- Cedric?" She sniffled, quickly wiping away her tears. She didn't want him to see her crying; especially when he was part of the reason she was crying. She had liked him for a while now and it had hurt to hear the comments from his female housemates that included things like how Cedric Diggory would never "go for someone so boring and plain" as her and how it was just "pathetic" the way she looked at him like some kind of "lost puppy"( that comment in particular had made her angry. She had never had to struggle so hard to keep her temper in order; she knew now how Harry felt most of the time these days. Still it hurt very much. Hermione had no idea that her small infatuation with the Hufflepuff seeker had been so obvious.)

He wanted to ask whether she was alright, but he realized that was a stupid question to ask, when the girl had been pouring all those tears out just seconds ago.

"What's wrong?" There. That didn't sound so bad, he thought.

"Nothing is" Hermione said, quickly trying to insert that bossy and slightly condescending tone in her voice that she usually used with Ron Weasley. He was her best friend, but even she had to admit that he wasn't the brightest pea out there.

"Oh, come on Hermione, something is wrong" he said sitting down next to her "You can tell me, it might make you feel better"

She looked at him wondering if she should tell him the truth or not.

"I... it's just. I heard some people talking about me" that wasn't a lie; it just wasn't a complete truth.

"Talking about you" he said slowly "What exactly did they say?"

Damn it, she thought. Did he have to ask that question? She decided to stay silent; she didn't want to tell him what they'd said.

"Hermione" he started "since when do you listen to what people say about you?" he asked feeling a bit confused but also wanting to cheer her up.

"I… well" That was a really good point, she thought to herself. Why again did she let those spiteful words get to her? Oooh right, because they just had to hit on her weak spot: Cedric.

"It's just, what they were saying- well it's… I'm afraid it is the truth"

"Are you going to tell me what they said?" he teased lightly.

"No, not really" Hermione said with a bit of a smile.

"I'm guessing they weren't very nice things" he probed.

"No, they weren't. I… I just don't get it! I was never insecure…" she trailed off, realizing that wasn't exactly true. I mean" she tried again "At least I thought I wasn't…anymore" the last word was barely a mumble but he caught it.

"You are a really amazing girl Hermione, you shouldn't listen to what people say…" he trailed off, realizing what he'd just said, a faint pink tinting his cheeks.

She didn't notice it though; she was too busy feeling indignant.

"You don't even know what they were saying!" she cried.

"Well it can't be anything nice, otherwise you wouldn't be crying" he said feeling a bit relieved she hadn't noticed his slip.

"Oh." He was right, of course. She looked down; feeling all the more embarrassed all of a sudden. God, she must look like a complete mess, she thought sadly.

"Well, uh…" she wiped her cheeks clumsily "I should probably get going" They stood up at the same time, both feeling awkward.

"Oh. Well, you sure you're okay?" She watched as he shuffled his foot adorably wondering how he still managed to look up at her when she was at least a foot shorter than him.

"Um, yes, I'm…" she looked up at him. She already knew this of course, but suddenly it hit her like a ton of bricks just how kind this specific Hufflepuff was. She really should stop judging people by their houses, she thought to herself.

"Yes, I'm fine" she reassured him. "Thank you Cedric" She said shyly, still feeling a bit self-conscious of the fact that she knew she must look a mess in front of the boy- well the boy she fancied. She might as well admit it to herself, if to no one else.

"Don't worry about it" he waved off her thank you, knowing that he hadn't done much really.

She nodded, sent him a shy smile and started to walk away, torn between feeling happy and even a bit giddy that he had stopped to check on her, and disappointed that her time with him had been so short, _and_, she had spent most of it crying, she reminded herself, feeling an urge to slap herself on the forehead. She sighed as she dragged her feet along, those girls were undoubtedly cruel about the way they were saying things about her, but they were right on some accounts. Clever as though she was, she really was hopeless in the whole boy slash romance kind of thing.

Cedric watched as she started to walk away, mad at himself for wasting such a good opportunity to talk to her without anybody else around to interrupt. Why in the world was he being such a coward? Sure he was no Gryffindor, but that was no reason for him to be such a pansy. He heard her sigh and decided to throw caution to the wind, even if she did say no, at least then he would know how she felt, and be able to try and get over his slight obsession with her.

"Hermione!" he called just before the girl turned the corner. She stopped, turning around to face him, a confused expression on her pretty face. He walked quickly towards her. Knowing for sure that his face must be resembling a tomato by now. Merlin, he was nervous. Why was he so nervous? He asked himself desperately.

"Yes?" she asked once he was finally standing in front of her. Was it just his hopeful imagination or did she sound a bit nervous herself?

"Uh, I was just wondering…" he trailed off, his voice deserting him. He huffed, starting to feel increasingly annoyed with himself. He looked down at her, to see a curious expression on the brunette's face and taking a deep breath, he started again. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmead with me next week-end?" There; he'd done it. He asked her, clear and straight to the point, she certainly couldn't misunderstand it, and all he needed to do now, was wait for her answer.

Had he just asked her out? It couldn't be, could it? Maybe she'd heard him wrong, maybe he'd said something completely different and she just wanted him to ask her out so much that she had just imagined he had.

"Sorry?" She just had to ask. Her ears had certainly gone crazy, there wasn't other explanation.

He sighed, looking a bit exasperated, which made her sure she'd heard him wrong when in fact he was thinking about how cruel it was that she would make him ask her again, when it had been so hard for him to ask her once. He took another deep breath. She strained her ears.

"I said" he started "would you like to go to Hogsmead next week-end with me?" Take that Gryffindors, he thought to himself. He had just asked Hermione Granger out. Twice!

So… she hadn't heard him wrong?

"Why?" the question escaped her lips before she had time to think about what she was saying, but all in all, she thought it was a good question. Why indeed, did he want to go Hogsmead with her?

"Why?" He repeated, his face completely blank.

"Yes, why do you want to go with me?" In all honesty, she was going to ask why he _would _want to go with her, but she thought that that sounded just a tad bit too sad. Even for her.

He looked at her, feeling very nervous all over again. That question really did have the potential of making things very awkward for him.

"Well, I… I just thought that it would be nice to hang out together" He wasn't sure if that was the answer she wanted, but he didn't feel very comfortable with saying anything else right now.

She looked at him, feeling a bit suspicious all of a sudden, those girl's words ringing loud in her ears.

"You're not doing this because you feel sorry for me right?"

His eyes widened. Was that what she thought?

"What! No! Of course not!" How could she think that he would do that?

"Then" she started, but he quickly cut her off.

"Look, I asked you because, well, I've been wanting to for ages now, and I really just want to spend some time with you, just the two of us, but if you don't want to…" He trailed off once again. In his haste to reassure her he had said a bit too much and it left him feeling very vulnerable indeed. He decided he didn't like the feeling.

"No, it's not that" she said quickly. "I just, well I just wanted to be sure, I mean, after what your friends said –." She snapped her mouth shut, realizing she had said way too much.

He gave her a suspicious look, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"What do you mean by `my friends`?"

"Uh, umm" she stuttered. Great; what was she supposed to say now? That his housemates had been bitching off about her? Would he even believe that? Would he think she's lying?

"Nothing really" it wouldn't hurt to try right?

"C'mon Hermione, I think we've already established that your `nothing's` are always something."

"I- look, they were just some girls really. I didn't exactly mean they are your friends- just that, you know, they are in the same house as you." She finished. She had seen him previously with some of those girls, but she couldn't know for sure if they were close friends or anything, Cedric was a popular guy after all. She understood however why he seemed so irked about what she'd said, she after all didn't accept criticism towards her friends either, and she'd become quite defensive whenever she heard it. Seeing the look in his face though made her think that they had something in common after all: They were both fiercely loyal and protective of their friends.

"What girls?" he asked and she thought that she should've seen this coming: of course he'd want to know exactly who she was talking about.

"Look, it's nothing. It really doesn't matter" She said turning around and hoping that he would just leave it at that. She had no such luck though, because before she could even take a step away from him, he was reaching out for her. With his hand on her shoulder, he gently turned her back around so she was facing him again; the darkening rays of sunlight touching her face, making it seem softer, tanner.

"It does matter" he said. "Tell me" he asked softly.

She looked at him. His face was partly in shadow because of the light that was coming in through the windows behind him, it made his features look sharper, she thought. She knew she couldn't refuse any longer though, especially since his hand was still resting on the curve of her shoulder. She wondered how anyone could ever say no to him when he was looking at them like that. She sighed in defeat.

"It was Cassie Jones and her group of friends" she said.

Hermione didn't know all of their names, but she didn't think that she needed to list all of them.

She was right.

Hermione watched as he pursed his lips, his expression going form a calm one to one she could that she could only describe as infinitely annoyed.

Cedric thought that he shouldn't be surprised really, as soon as she'd said it, he had realized that he had actually been expecting it. The girl, he knew, had always had a thing for him; two years ago he hadn't minded it, he had been polite, even friendly to her and Cassie had taken it as a sign of interest. Ever since the Tournament though, the girl had stopped being a harmless flirt, becoming more aggressive and bold everyday, and in the last couple of weeks she had become downright unpleasant.

"Hermione" he reached out again, both of his hands on her shoulders now "Whatever it is that she said, don't listen to her. That girl is, well I don't know, but lately, I've been completely lost about what to do about her. She's been spreading a whole bunch of lies about her and me, and I bet that whatever it is that she said about you in not true either"

Hermione looked at him surprised. She had known about those girls' tendency to gossip, but she had thought they were just another bunch of Lavenders and Pavartis. It seemed she was wrong, Lavender and Pavarti were certainly keen to gossip but they lacked the mean streak those Hufflepuffs seemed to have.

"Oh" she said. Now it made sense to her why Cassie Jones had been so mean towards her. She liked Cedric. Of course, she sighed.

"Well that makes sense" she muttered, not realizing Cedric had heard her.

"What does? He asked curiously.

"Huh?" She looked up at him surprised "Oh, just you know, what she said; it makes sense now."

"What did she say?"

"Oh" she blushed "Well like I said, stuff about me, although… although your name might have come up once or twice" She didn't exactly want to tell him that, but she found that she just couldn't lie to him.

"My name?" He asked surprised "What about me?"

She sighed again; it seemed he wouldn't let her go until he got the whole story out of her.

"You know, things about how she is so perfect for you, and how great you'd be together" once again, it wasn't a lie, just a half-truth.

"And you were crying because of that?" he raised an eyebrow sceptically.

She blushed embarrassed at how that sounded, but decided to be honest.

"Not exactly" She started.

"Well then, Miss Granger, enlighten me" she watched as a half-smile showed on his face.

"Well…" she hesitated.

"Well…?" he encouraged.

"She was saying things about how boring and plain I am, and that I'm absolutely pathetic if I think any boy would ever like an ugly bookworm like me" Damn, she thought, she felt like crying again. It wasn't however, the exact truth; instead of `any boy` she had used Cedric's name which made it hurt all the more, because she actually liked him.

Hermione looked up at him, her eyes full of tears once again, feeling afraid that now that she'd said it to him out loud he would realize that Cassie Jones was right and that he couldn't be bothered with her anymore.

She watched expectantly as his jaw dropped, his mouth hanging opened and his eyes widened in what seemed disbelief.

"She said what?" he gasped out, his voice rising in volume.

She looked at him in surprise. She wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.

"Uh" but before she could say anything else he was talking again.

"And you believed her?" His voice and expression was one of stunned shock. He seemed a lot more shocked about the fact that Hermione had believed the girl's words than the fact that Cassie had said those words in the first place.

"Well, I… yes, I did. I mean, they are kind of the truth aren't they?" She looked at him sadly and saw his expression softening until he was looking at her with what she would've been sure was affection. If he wasn't looking at her that is.

She felt his hands that had been on her shoulders up to now, slide down until they were grasping her hands, his fingers closing around her own.

"No. They aren't" he said smiling "In fact they are as far from the truth as they could possibly be" he told her.

She looked up at him, barely daring to hope he meant what she thought he did.

"They are?" she asked.

"Absolutely" he paused. "Hermione, how could you even believe that? They are such ridiculous lies, that it should have been obvious that she is just jealous of you"

"Jealous?" she looked at him as if he was completely crazy. "Why in the world would she be jealous of me?" She wondered out loud.

"Because" he said while tugging gently on her hands to gain her attention "Unlike what Cassie said, you are far from being either boring or plain, and the concept of you being ugly is so ridiculous I'm surprised she said it, 'cause it is such an obvious lie." He looked at her studying the very delicate and feminine features.

"Hermione, you're beautiful and kind and caring and compassionate and smart, and really I could go on and on here, but I think you get the point" He chuckled, looking at her tenderly. He knew that fifteen minutes ago he would have never dared to say such things to her, but he couldn't let her go believing the things Cassie had said about her, and he knew that she honestly believed it, he could see it in her face, especially now that she was looking at him with eyes wide and full lips parted in surprise, gaping at him.

"You- you can't be serious" she started, but soon he was interrupting her again. He seemed to be unable to stop talking now that he had started, and, since he had started, he thought, he might as well finish it.

"Besides, it is not surprising really that she would be so jealous of you when she, like many others of my housemates realized that although I have no interest in her, I was – am" he corrected himself "very much interested in a certain small but brilliant Gryffindor witch. She is kind of tiny if compared to me, and she has really amazing brown eyes, and the most beautiful smile as well, oh yeah" he slapped his forehead as if he had forgotten something very important before taking her hand in his again " and she is also the smartest witch of her age. Any ideas on who that is? He asked her, a grin spreading about his face as he saw the dark crimson blush on her cheeks.

She looked at him, not knowing what to say, but thinking that even if she did, her voice would probably fail her, because just them she was too busy being a girl and experiencing all those things a girl felt when she was with the boy she liked: cheeks tinted red, stomach up in knots, her hands tingling from his touch ten times worse than they had been when Cedric had first grabbed hold of her hands, because she knew how he felt now, and she had just heard him calling her the sweetest things and she was filled with such amazed disbelief, that felt both scary and wonderful at the same time.

She couldn't help the smile that spread on her face as she looked at him.

"Well, she sounds wonderful really, but I don't think anyone can be all that" she told him with a shy smile.

"Trust me," he told her "she is all that and more" He squeezed her hands a bit, silently telling her that it was her, just in case she hadn't understood it.

For a flitting moment she wondered what Cassie Jones' face would look like when she saw them together walking around in Hogsmead on their first date, but deciding she couldn't care less about her, she went up on tip toes, offering her lips for a kiss.

End

That was it. Anyway this is my second story and I'm starting to think that I'm an extremely corny girl because it seems I've just written another really cheesy story. Oh well.

I was just reading this again and I realized a couple of things, first that I have a habit of saying 'well' a lot and I think that showed in here, and second is that I changed the whole point of view thing quite a lot, so I'm hoping it is not too confusing.

Also I realize the characters might be a bit OOC, but really in this fic Cedric is still alive so I guess things would go off the normal kind of road.

Last thing is, I have a real hard time with my tenses, and I'm sorry if that shows, my first language isn't English and I guess this is one of the thing I haven't got the hang of yet.

Anyway, tell me what you think =)

Lorena M.


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